The present invention comprises a new Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘SYEP23203’.
‘SYEP23203’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘SYEP23203’ has brilliant red bract color, wide, ovate bract shape, dark green foliage with only weak lobing, mid season flowering, and v-shaped upright plant habit with strong stems.
‘SYEP23203’ originated from a hybridization made in the summer of 2003 in a controlled breeding program in Hillscheid, Germany. The female parent was the proprietary variety ‘S90-1901-1’, not patented, with intense red colored bracts, medium-green foliage, medium to tall plant habit and relatively late flowering.
The male parent of ‘SYEP23203’ was the proprietary plant ‘Fispoin 7776’, not patented. ‘Fispoin 7776’ was applied for with the PBR authority in Canada but was withdrawn when it became clear that the variety would not be introduced and marketed. ‘Fispoin 7776’ has large, red to slightly orange-red bracts, dark green foliage with distinct lobes, and medium sized plant habit with relatively upright directed stems.
The resulting seeds were sown in February to March 2004 and ‘SYEP23203’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in December 2004 during a greenhouse trial cultivation in Hillscheid, Germany.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘SYEP23203’ was accomplished when shoot-tips were cut for the cultivation of single-stem plants in the summer of 2004 for the above greenhouse trial.
In April through May 2005 shoot-tips were cut once more to be grafted onto rootstocks of the variety ‘Maren’ in order to improve the branching ability. Cuttings from the successfully grafted stems were used in the summer of 2007, rooted and cultivated as branched plants for a small trial in fall and winter of 2007.
Horticultural examination of plants grown from cuttings of the plant initiated in the summer of 2007 in Hillscheid, Germany, and continuing thereafter on a larger scale, has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘SYEP23203’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.
A Plant Breeder's Right for this cultivar has been applied for in Switzerland in early February 2011. A Plant Breeder's Right has also been applied for in Canada on Mar. 8, 2010 (No. 10-6882). ‘SYEP23203’ has not been made publicly available more than one year prior to the filing of this application.
‘SYEP23203’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity and day length